20 / 324
(2) State lands formerly belonging to the Crown,
Admiralty, Air Ministry, R.I.C., and land devolving
on the State as property of a dissolved company
or as escheated land or as
bona vacantia
are vested
in the Minister for Finance. (Sect. 5)
(3) A State authority (i.e. a Minister or the Com–
missioners of Public 'Works) is enabled to convey,
assign or transfer State land vested in it to any other
State authority. (Sect. 7)
(4) State authorities, in respect of State land vested
in them are empowered to sell, exchange, grant
gratuitously or lease such land subject to the consent
(general or particular) of the Minister for Finance,
Certain lands (Forestry lands, State minerals, aero–
drome lands, the Bourn Vincent Memorial Park,
the National Stud Farm, Johnstown Castle Agri–
cultural College) are excluded from the scope of
these provisions (Sects. 9 and 10)
(5) A State authority is enabled to institute legal
proceedings as if it were the owner, lessee or tenant
of State land vested in it and a sealed certificate of
such authority to
prima facie
evidence of its tenure
of the land. A sealed certificate may also be
prima
facie
evidence that the State knd is held from the
State authority by a specified person on specified
terms, that a specified sum is due as rent, that a
notice to quit was served on a tenant and that the
tenant refused to surrender possession of the knd.
(Sect. 16)
(6) A simplified procedure for the recovery of
State premises is instituted where premises were
overheld by
(a)
State servants (e.g. members of
the Defence Forces, Garda Siochana and Civil
Service) and ex-State servants who were put, by
reason of their being State servants, into occupation
of the premises,
(b~)
persons who were put into
occupation of the premises as servants, herdsmen
or caretakers and
(c)
persons remaining in occupation
of the premises after the deaths of the State servants
etc., who were occupiers. The procedure invoked
hitherto involved an application to the Circuit Court
for an ejectment order. The procedure now pro–
posed is that the District Court may on the applica–
tion of a State authority, in whom premises are
vested, issue an order to a county registrar, sheriff
of under-sheriff, as may be appropriate, to deliver
possession of the premises to any person named in the
order. To facilitate court proceedings the section
provided that a certificate of the State authority
shall be
prima facie
evidence of certain matters, e.g.,
that a specified person was on a specified date in
occupation of the premises, was in occupation by
reason of his being a State servant, had been served
with a demand to quit and had refused to quit.
(Sect. 17)
(7) The Statutory limitation of time for an action
of suit by a State authority or the Attorney General
to recover State land or rent therefor will be a
period of 60 years or 30 years according to the cir–
cumstances of the case defined in the Nullum Tempus
(Ireland) Act; 1876. (Sect. 18)
(8) State debts arising in connection with State
lands are given the same priorities which formerly
attached to debts due to the Crown. The section
is analogous to subsection 38 (2) of the Finance
Act, 1924. (Sect. 19)
(9) Provision is made for the acceptance and
refusal of gifts of real or personal property to a
State authority, the State, the Nation or the People
(Sect. 20) and for the custody of title deeds relating
to State land (Sect. 23) and that the seal of the Com–
missioners of Public Works shall be judicially noticed.
(Sect. 24)
(10) Provision is made that rights and pre–
rogatives which by virtue of Article 49 of the
Constitution belong to the people and relate to
any property shall be exercised by the Government
through and by the Minister for Finance (Sect. 28)
and that the past and present property of dissolved
bodies corporate shall be State property (Sect. 29)
(n) All personal property which became or
becomes the property of the State either as
bona
vacantia
or by virtue of Section 29 shall vest in the
Minister for Finance (Sect. 30) and the Minister
may if he so thinks fit apply to the High Court for
an order declaring that property has devolved upon
the State by way of escheat or has become the pro–
perty of the State as
bona vacantia
or by virtue of
section 29, the order so made to be conclusive
evidence on the point subject to appeal to the
Supreme Court. (Sect. 31)
DECISIONS
OF
PROFESSIONAL
INTEREST.
Costs—Contentious or Non-Contentious
•
Business—
Lump Sum Bill.
THE case noted at Page 67, Vol. 48, of the Gazette
has now been affirmed by the Court of Appeal
(Denning and Parker, L.J.J., and Roxburgh, J.).
It will be recalled that Gerrard, J. decided
inter-
alia
that whether business was contentious or non-
contentious must be determined by its nature and
not solely by the questions whether litigious pro–
ceedings had been commenced and the business
had been done in those proceedings ;
the true test
was whether, if the case went to trial, remuneration
for the business (even though done before the litiga–
tion began) would be allowed on a party and party